Introduction to Consciousness
Consciousness is that which is conscious of everything that is to be known. Man is more conscious than the animal and the plant, but he does not know what the other man thinks or what to do next. He knows what his senses tell him. That is, he is conscious in his senses or conscious to the extent his senses are aware. For the rest he is unconscious. He does not know what is at a distance or what will come tomorrow. Nor is he fully aware of all the experiences he has already passed through. Particularly he does not know himself before his birth or after his death. Consciousness as the Creator That which created the world is conscious of the entire world and the universe. To be conscious of That is consciousness. It is buried in us and is called Soul. According to Sri Aurobindo, consciousness has created this world by dividing the One into Many. In its own language, in the One all is in all. The One becomes the Many -- not by division that causes separation but -- by differentiation where all is in each and each is in all for the purposes of Lila, the Play. God has created this world for the delight of this Play. Theory of Creation Sri Aurobindo presents a Theory of Creation. Rather than positing an extra-terrestrial God that creates a world separate from himself, Sri Aurobindo starts with the hypothesis that God became the world. This theory addresses three of the fundamental issues concerning the origin and nature of the world. # Human beings suffer evil: His theory explains the origin of what we call evil but concludes that there is no real evil in the world. # The world obeys an iron law of Necessity: His theory explains that Necessity as the capacity of the creative consciousness to impose order and stability. # The world is created by Chance: His theory explains Chance as an expression of the freedom of the creative consciousness. Chance and Necessity combine to create infinite variety. He proves that this hypothesis holds good. To him the world is really a Marvel devoid of Evil, Suffering, and Death. To enhance his Delight, God resorted to the method of Self-discovery hiding Himself in the Ignorance he has created. Ego is the personification of that Ignorance. It is man’s ego that sees Evil, but really there is no Evil. He also answers the question of determinism. This is the essence of his Theory of Creation. Process of Accomplishment The consciousness that created the world consists of two aspects – Knowledge and Will. Will is the force and it is force that accomplishes. The process of accomplishment: Consciousness generates Energy which when directed by the Will becomes Force. Force passing through an Organization becomes Power which produces the Results through human skill. ' Energy ─ Force ─ Power ─ Results ' ' Aspiration of consciousness ─ Will ─ Organization ─ Skill ' According to Science there are laws governing the universe. Everything, including Humanity, is the creation of these laws. Science rules out a role for human beings. Eastern philosophy, particularly Indian philosophy, comes to virtually the same conclusion in the name of karma. Sri Aurobindo departs from both. He says Man is God. The human being is the determinant. His choice matters. The message of The Secret, which states that people can accomplish disregarding the existing situation, also accords this privileged position to Man. In that sense, The Secret carries a creative philosophy in tune with the evolutionary philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. ---- http://server3.web-stat.com/4/humanscience.gif [http://www.web-stat.com/checkstats1.htm H] Category:Process of Creation Category:Spirituality